Starting out the guide, we’ll quickly go over available weapons in DoS 2, status effects and how to pair weapons to existing skills. If you already know what kind of weapons there's in the game I suggest you skip down to “Status effects” or if you're just here for the skill combinations, go ahead and scroll down.

Note: through the entire guide, we’ll make use of a “skill level” placement. That means simple stuff you’ll learn at the start of the game will be marked as A (easiest), B (medium), G (difficult)

1. Weapons list (A)
All weapons can be divided into four categories:

• One-handed weapons:
One handed weapon vary from swords, axes, maces, daggers, and wands.

• Two-handed weapons:
Like one-handed weapons, you’ll find variants who requires two hands to wield, such as two handed swords/claymores, axes, maces, spears and staffs.

• Ranged weapons:
You’ve probably already guessed which weapons will be listed here: bow, crossbow, and wands (staffs are not ranged)

• Shields:
This one is pretty self-explanatory: shields.


2. Status effects (B)

Besides your ordinary sword, you might end up wielding weapons that not only cut down your enemies but also sets them aflame. These “unique” abilities are called statues effects and they can be found on all 4 weapon classes. Let's get started:


• No status effect:
Like the darling bow, you'll get nothing but basic physical damage. Below the damage level you'll see how much extra damage getting a critical strike will do and to the right, you'll see how many action points are required to attack with the weapon.

Then you'll have "special", which varies greatly from granting you teleportation to simply buffing your resistance to certain types of damage. Then there's the properties which tell you what level the weapon belongs to what attributes are required to wield it, range, durability and at times a small text which will often help describe unique status effects.













• Elemental status effect:
Like the staff and spear, you'll find weapons who either rely completely on elemental damage (often staffs and wands) and weapons gifted with a damage amplifier such as "earth".


The damage amplifiers are the same as elements you'll be able to conjure, meaning you can get a weapon with: air (electricity - has a chance to stun), fire (has a chance to set your target aflame), earth (has a chance to petrify your enemy), Water (makes your target wet, which is great if you want to turn them into frozen statues), poison (poisons living characters, heals undead)

Unique additions: Bleeding (works like bleeding), blessed (heals living characters), cursed (damages and curses enemy characters).









3. Weapon combinations (A-B)

Using the right weapons, for the right "class" is key to being useful in fights. It is to be noted tho, that you aren't required to wield a staff or wand to cast magic, and likewise not always necessary to use a melee weapon for melee skills.

Combinations (A):

Duel wielding (A): one-handed weapons are weapons you'll most often duel wield, due to their added damage effects "more is always better". An example of this is having two daggers which will allow you to deal extra backstapping damage and are required for certain Scroundel skills. Two wands will allow you to combo enemies with; poison and fire - which first applies poison and then sets it aflame (poison is flammable).

One-handed only (G): Only using one, one-handed weapons is either because you're roleplaying or because you want to get the "knock down" ability which allows you to punch your enemy, knocking them down.

One-handed and shield (A): Basic stuff, the shield will allow you to use "shields up", which replenishes physical and magical armor, depending on the shields stats.

Two-handed (A): Using a two handed weapon, besides staffs, gives you "all in" which as the name suggests deals a large amount of physical damage useful for allowing other spells to pass true their armor.

Ranged (B): While ranged weapons don't vary much, you'll quickly notice the difference between bashing your enemies with a large mace and shooting them with a bow (damage wise). The reason for ranged weapons (except wands) to have such a bad reputations is caused by their need to rely on certain battlefield situations, such as "high ground" which allows you to deal more damage and gets buffed with the Huntsman skill. Crossbows also use 3 actions points, instead of two but can arguably deal more damage if your bow and crossbow options are the same level and quality.

Terrible Masochist

The terrible masochist is probably the most born (gameplay-wise) build you can get. So let's start out with that one, eh?

Skills:

Necromancer

Retribution

Synergy: Because Necromancer allows you to heal 10% of all damage dealt (at level 1), and Retribution returns 10 % of all damage received (at level 1), you could in theory at level 20 be unstoppable, since no AI will survive hitting you and as soon as it gets your turn, you can heal right back up.

Ups:
Nearly impossible to kill
Simple build
Funny when it works

Downs:
Only able to deal damage with necromancer abilities.
Retribution isn't "global", certain distance has to be kept.
No, engage or escapes
Passive gameplay

The Valkyrie

Named after the usage of "Spread your wings" and melee focus, the Valkyrie is a fun and legit build.

Skills:

Warfare

Polymorph

Hydrosophist (depends on your style of "Valkyrie")

Synergy: Either a front liner or a glorified assassin, making good use of warfare skills, like crippling strike and mentioned polymorph skills, you'll be able to engage all opponents on the battlefield, while look cool-as-F**k. We do recommend picking a human female (perhaps Lohse), getting a Viking-ish shield, a sword/axe and some heavy armor (also Viking-ish).

Ups:
Strong fighter, with a variety of different attacks that apply unique effects (tentacle lash, cripple strike etc.)
Simple build
Active gameplay
Nice role playing element
Weapon variety (two-handed weapons, sword, and shield, etc. There only limit is at ranged and wands/staffs)

Downs:
Melee fighter = weakness against Hydrosophist skills and Aerotheurge skills
Survivability may vary from chosen weapons
reliable on teammates
Requires thoughtful planning

The Avatar

We aren't talking about the blue guys here, but Avatar the Last Airbender (the anime, not the movie either). The build is pretty straightforward, and some might just call you an ordinary wizard...

Skills:

Aerotheurge

Hydrosophist

Pyrokinetic

Geomancer

Synergy: with access to the four basic elements in DoS 2, there's no limit to how you may synergy your combat strategy. Use geomancy to create oily surfaces, set it aflame with pyrokinetic or stun your foes with Aerotheurge and Hydrosophist.

Ups:
Liable true out the entire game
Synergies great with everyone
Acess to some of the most varied spells and abilities in the game
ranged attacks (depend on your roleplaying level, we suggest you pick up two wands, preferably with a synergizing combo)

Downs:
Points divided across a large area
vulnerable to melee opponents (sorta)
No strength = no heavy armor
Requires careful planning and aim, so that you don't stun or set aflame your entire team.


Rocketeer

Somewhat similar to the Valkyrie, the Rocketeer is somewhat the opposite tho.

Skills:

Huntsman

Polymorph


Synergy: Because "Spread your wings" allow you to travel all across the battlefield, gaining the high ground has never been this easy. Since Huntsman" increase high ground attacks with 5% (at level 1), you can safely rely on Cameleon and spread your wings to get you into position.

Ups:
Potential to do high amounts of physical damage
Easy means of escape
Ranged

Downs:
Melee opponents
Being focused
Difficult to master (while it might seem blatantly obvious as to where you should go/fly, it might end up giving you more trouble than you'd hoped for (codeword: getting ganked!)).

Van Helsing
While it might be difficult to match the savvy, sexy and intriguing appeal of Hugh Jackman (Because we aren't talking about the sh*tty Netflix TV-series!). You could at least try to follow in his footsteps as a dagger and crossbow wielding warrior with a flair for the dramatic.

Skills:

Huntsman

Scoundrel

Necromancy (if it suits you)

Synergies: While it does take one action point to swap weapons in combat, Hugh Jackman usually only uses his whirling saw blade daggers or his fully automatic crossbow, sadly we got neither in this game. Instead, you'll want to take the Inquisitor, take the mentioned skills, get some daggers and start saying stuff like: "There's something down here, it's carnivorous. Whatever it is it appears to be... human. I'd say it's a size 17, about 360 pounds, 8 and a half to 9 feet tall and he has a bad limp in his right leg and, ah, 3 copper teeth."

Ups:
if you get to nail the clothing, you'll end being the coolest player on the team (NO, it's not out of discussion!)
Scoundrel is a really good skill
Great for roleplaying as a savvy Inquisitor fella, with his mind set on killing some vampires.

Downs:
Huntsman isn't such a good skill...
Nailing the armor (which is medium/light) leaves you vulnerable to most attacks
Switching weapons might be a pain in the arse if you haven't made a keyboard shortcut
1v1 focused

The mad scientist

This build relies completely on poison, chloroform, and small minio... Henchmen.

Skills:

geomancy

Scoundrel

Summoning

Synergies: Like any mad scientist, you live for poisoning the healthy and sending your evil small henchmen to do all the dirty work. With this build, you'll rely on most points in geomancy and summoning, and using only Chloroform, Cloak and Dagger and Sawtooth Knife skills from the Scoundrel skill tree. You'll be equipped with either a staff, two daggers or dagger and wand.

Ups:
Poison is great against living targets
Works as a healer for undead teammates
escapes and maneuverability
Summoning allows you have constant presence on the battlefield in the shape of your Incarnates (which are infused with poison, of course)

Downs:
Melee opponents
Undead opponents
Same weaknesses as ordinary Caster classes.

The Paladin

As a paladin, you take up holy arms against those who would harm your friends and loved ones (at least that's what most do). As the paladin, you'll play the role as first-grade tank and second-grade healer.

Skills:

Warfare

Hydrosophist

Pyrokinetic

Synergies: Fighting with either a two handed mace or mace and shield (Yes, it has to some sort of mace, duh). You'll use your hydrosophist skills to buff and heal allies, your warfare and pyrokinetic to deal out some holy (burning) attacks and of course remember to cast "bless" as much as possible. This build also requires you get some sort of heavy armor and you don't care much for necromancy or other "unholy" magics.

Ups:
Always fun to preach the word of your fantasy god
Great fun and active gameplay
Survivability

Downs:
Slow and heavy
Might not deal as much damage as other full-on damage dealers
No escapes (Yes, Pheonix dive might be used as an escape, but then you're doing something wrong)
Point expensive, since you have to spend your points on skills and attributes (strength, constitution, and memory are key).

THIS! Is NOT how you are supposed to play Divinity. Divinity in coop is so much more than a turn-based-fighter, you'll need patience, skill and good teamwork to make the game enjoyable. Sure, you can just shoot teammates and heal enemies, but that gets boring after 5 minutes of whipping the team. So here are some tips when you're starting a coop campaign:


Raising your voice NEVER works
Talk about what you want to do before you do it.
Make sure you're watching where you're aiming
Encourage your team
Don't think your special because you just happen to have a spell that could deal with that guy (we don't care)
When looting, tell everyone what you got - because otherwise the guy who's fastest, will end up with twice the armor, weapons and money than the rest of your team.

Suggestions:

If your three people, I suggest having the last character as the money and item wagon. Just throw all items and money into the unused character and then coordinate when you need to buy something.
Crafting items and skill books should be kept if someone on the team likes crafting (which on release, is pretty much necessary)
Coordinate in character creation, so you don't apply opposite effects on opponents (fire and water is pretty much useless)